This post has been a long time coming....this is because I've been extremely busy sorting out the next major chapter of my adventure! Apologies to all my millions of loyal fans i.e. the one or two lovely people that can still be bothered to read this after ten long months!!!
After the Songkran street festival in Bangkok I caught a flight, bus, ferry and minivan to see my friend from home, Ash, on Koh Samui. She is teaching English on the island and although I'd been there for a few days in January it's always ideal to be shown around by someone who knows what's what! Of course we indulged in our fair share of the party life that all the southern islands of Thailand have to offer and it was incredible to catch up with Ash albeit surreal 'bumping in to' her in Asia!
In the last week of April it was time to leave Ash and start making the (almost impossible) transition from scruffy traveller back to 'normal member of society' so I could begin a course that will help me learn how to teach English as a foreign language. I'd been attempting to 'de-backpacker' my appearance for a few weeks now; you know you've been travelling too long when you find your hungover self in a dark toilet in Cambodia hacking at your hair with a pair of miniature scissors from a Poundland sewing kit, in an attempt to give yourself a haircut....
The course was for three weeks and enables me to volunteer or work as an English teacher in most countries around the world (oh hello extended travels!!). I arrived in Bangkok in the early evening and made my own way to the hotel where the course was based. I was sharing a room with an English girl, Stacey, and on our way to grab some food we bumped into two other people from our course; we decided to 'grab a beer' but somehow this turned into to many, many beers, some dodgy impromptu karaoke, setting Stacey's entire dress on fire (although this arson may have been executed by Thai ghosts) and a late night swim in the hotel's rooftop pool. This all would have been fine if we didn't have to get up bright and early the next day to start our teacher training - cue four hungover, soon-to-be teachers traipsing into to the small conference room to meet the trainer, Mera, and the three other people on our course.
Bangkok is utter madness at the best of times but luckily we'd been placed in a quiet area away from the hoards of tourists; for the three weeks we were there we spent our abundant free time playing snooker, eating street food from the local night market and playing 'menu lottery' where we'd point at something in Thai and pray to Buddha that it wasn't donkey brains. A visit to Thailand's capital isn't complete without a night out (or ten) on the infamous Khao San road and, having been there four or five times during the last nine months (I forget how many because that crazy road is like a black hole), I was able to find my way around. I became really close to some of the people on my course but I did also learn some things amidst all the fun...honest! Lesson planning, classroom management, grammar refreshers plus an indispensable guide on Thai culture for example I'm not allowed point at anyone with my finger, touch a child's head, shout, show the soles of my feet or speak badly about the King as all of these and more are considered extremely offensive and the latter could land me with a hefty prison sentence! We were also warned that all meetings and register sheets are in indecipherable Thai and that it's very common for a foreign teacher to be kept in the dark about pretty much everything such as public holidays, the curriculum and schedule changes. This is going to be more of a challenge than I anticipated...
After the Songkran street festival in Bangkok I caught a flight, bus, ferry and minivan to see my friend from home, Ash, on Koh Samui. She is teaching English on the island and although I'd been there for a few days in January it's always ideal to be shown around by someone who knows what's what! Of course we indulged in our fair share of the party life that all the southern islands of Thailand have to offer and it was incredible to catch up with Ash albeit surreal 'bumping in to' her in Asia!
Beautiful Koh Samui.
Midget Granny and Furby Face reunited!
Nightly fire shows and beach parties.
The course was for three weeks and enables me to volunteer or work as an English teacher in most countries around the world (oh hello extended travels!!). I arrived in Bangkok in the early evening and made my own way to the hotel where the course was based. I was sharing a room with an English girl, Stacey, and on our way to grab some food we bumped into two other people from our course; we decided to 'grab a beer' but somehow this turned into to many, many beers, some dodgy impromptu karaoke, setting Stacey's entire dress on fire (although this arson may have been executed by Thai ghosts) and a late night swim in the hotel's rooftop pool. This all would have been fine if we didn't have to get up bright and early the next day to start our teacher training - cue four hungover, soon-to-be teachers traipsing into to the small conference room to meet the trainer, Mera, and the three other people on our course.
Fire!
Sunset over the Bangkok skyline as seen from Bansabai hotel roof.
Thais love karaoke!
My attempt at dressing smartly for the first time in a while (check out the rooftop pool!).
Bangkok is utter madness at the best of times but luckily we'd been placed in a quiet area away from the hoards of tourists; for the three weeks we were there we spent our abundant free time playing snooker, eating street food from the local night market and playing 'menu lottery' where we'd point at something in Thai and pray to Buddha that it wasn't donkey brains. A visit to Thailand's capital isn't complete without a night out (or ten) on the infamous Khao San road and, having been there four or five times during the last nine months (I forget how many because that crazy road is like a black hole), I was able to find my way around. I became really close to some of the people on my course but I did also learn some things amidst all the fun...honest! Lesson planning, classroom management, grammar refreshers plus an indispensable guide on Thai culture for example I'm not allowed point at anyone with my finger, touch a child's head, shout, show the soles of my feet or speak badly about the King as all of these and more are considered extremely offensive and the latter could land me with a hefty prison sentence! We were also warned that all meetings and register sheets are in indecipherable Thai and that it's very common for a foreign teacher to be kept in the dark about pretty much everything such as public holidays, the curriculum and schedule changes. This is going to be more of a challenge than I anticipated...
Khao San keg.
Tuk Tuk race through Bangkok.
One of the many street food snacks on offer just down the road from our hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment